1. Phonics and Reading
in Reception

2. Teaching your child to read What has happened so far?
Your child has been exposed to language in different forms since birth.
This may include listening to stories, songs, poems, rhymes and conversations.
Some conversations may be in a language other than English.
Some children may have been to a nursery. Some may have bedtime stories. Some may listen to story CD’s in the car. Some may talk about writing in the environment: For e.g. ASDA, M (McDonalds). Some may have been to rhyme time at the library.
All of this early exposure to language will help to develop a passion and love for reading and writing. We call this oral literacy.

3. In school……
We continue to develop a love of language and comprehension. We read, retell and discuss stories, encourage speaking and listening in small and large groups and set up opportunities for role play and developing and using imagination through play. We talk about characters, setting. plot, alternative endings, etc.
We have started to teach some of the first phonics sounds so children can read for themselves.

4. What happens next?
We would like to work in partnership with you to help your child love to learn about language in the spoken and written form.
1. First of all you could:
Continue to build a love of language and understanding reading by talking to your child about different texts.
These could be in any form:
Magazines
Newspapers
Menus
Letters
Fiction and Non Fiction Books
Poems
Nonsense Rhymes
Joke Books

5. 2. Help your child to learn to read. We call this decoding.

6. What are phonics?
Phonics are the sounds we use when we speak, which when put together form words.
There are 44 phonic sounds in the English language.

7. Why teach phonics?
Phonics helps children to develop good reading and spelling skills
e.g. cat can be sounded out for reading and spelling
The ability to read and write well is a vital skill for all children, paving the way for an enjoyable and successful school experience.

8. How to say the sounds
Saying the sounds correctly with your child is extremely important.
The way we say a sound may well be different from when you were at school.
We say the shortest form of the sounds (pure sounds).

9. The 44 phonemes /b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/ /p/ /r/
/v/
/w/
/y/
/z/
/th/
/ch/
/sh/
/zh/
/a/
/e/
/i/
/o/
/u/
/ae/
/ee/
/ie/
/oe/
/ue/
/oo/
/ar/
/ur/
/au/
/er/
/ow/
/oi/
/air/
/ear/
/ure/

10. How many phonemes can you hear in cat?
Some Definitions
A Phoneme
This is the smallest unit of spoken sound in a word.
How many phonemes can you hear in cat?

11. There may be many ways of spelling one sound (phoneme).
A grapheme is the written form of the 44 phonemes in our English language.
There may be many ways of spelling one sound (phoneme).
The grapheme could be 1 letter, 2 letters or more!
i ie igh

12. A phoneme you hear
A grapheme you see

13. How many words can you make?
s a t p i n m d

14. Phase 2
Sounds are introduced in sets
Set 1: s a t p
Set 2: i n m d
Set 3: g o c k
Set 4: ck e u r
Set 5: h b f ff l ll ss

15. Blending and Segmenting
Children will learn to blend (merge) sounds together to make sense of and read words.
Try this one: R-o-ck-e-t
Children will learn to segment (chop up) words into individual sounds in order to spell a word.
Try this one: Chopping.

16. Segment (Write) and blend (Read)these words…
drep
blom
gris
Nonsense games like this help to build up skills – and are fun!

17. Once children are good with single letter graphemes…
DIGRAPHS – 2 letters that make 1 sound
ll ss zz oa ai
TRIGRAPHS – 3 letters that make 1 sound
igh dge

18. Segmenting Activity shelf dress sprint right
Using ‘sound buttons’ can you say how many phonemes are in each word.
shelf
dress
sprint
right

19. Did you get it right? shelf = sh – e – l – f = 4 phonemes
dress = d - r - e – ss = 4 phonemes
sprint = s – p – r – i – n – t = 6 phonemes
right = r – igh – t = 3 phonemes

20. Tricky Words Words that are not phonically decodeable e.g. was, the, I
Some are ‘tricky’ to start with but will become decodeable once we have learned more ways to spell sounds.
e.g. out, there

21. Phase 3 - Foundation Stage Reception
The purpose of this phase is to:
teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat
practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light
learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly
read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
read and write words in phrases and sentences.

22. Resources: What do we use to teach phonics?

23. Jolly Phonic Songs
Read Write Inc. Letter formation

24. Animal Key Words
Throughout the year we expect children to learn their animal key words at home with you.
Key words are a mixture of tricky words and high frequency words that appear a lot in their reading books

25. Our reading scheme
Read Write Inc
Oxford Reading Tree
Songbirds

26. What do you need to do? Continue to build a love of language.
Read every day with your child.
Practise the phonics sounds taught so far.
Practise learning key ‘tricky’ words every day.
Write in your child’s reading record when you have read with your child.
Volunteer to help to hear children read at Southville Primary School.